American League Central Teams Endure Brutal Stretch, Return To Action Tuesday

The entire American League Central had Monday off, and maybe that was a good thing.

It was an awful weekend for the division, as four of the five teams were swept. The outlier was the Detroit Tigers, who still have the best record in MLB at 46-27. But even they lost a home series to the Cincinnati Reds and lost the last two games by a combined score of 19-5.

The Tigers haven't been at their best lately, going .500 over their last 12 games with losses to the teams with the fewest wins in the American League, the White Sox and Orioles. But the rest of the Central has been even worse, allowing the Tigers to extend their division lead to nine games.

The Twins, Guardians, Royals and White Sox have each lost their last two series, combining for a 3-21 record. The Royals went on a six-game losing streak last week at home, with sweeps against the Athletics and Yankees. They also lost two of three games to the White Sox before then, making Kansas City 1-8 since June 6 and 11.5 games behind the Tigers.

The Twins have the next longest losing streak in the division at four games after being swept in Houston and losing home series against the Rangers and Blue Jays. That 2-8 stretch did a lot to wipe away the progress Minnesota made during a 13-game win streak in May, as it trails the Tigers by nine games.

The Guardians are an identical 2-8 in their last 10, most recently being swept in Seattle and losing home series to the Reds and Astros. They scored just five runs over three games against the Mariners, and have been shutout three times since June 5.

The White Sox have been in last place for a vast majority of the season, and they've fallen a season-high 26 games below .500. Chicago went 1-5 during their road trip to Texas, getting swept by the Rangers and losing two of three games to the Astros. The White Sox offense was quiet all week, scoring just 15 runs across six games.

Just over a month ago, it was shaping up to be a competitive division race. On May 9, the Tigers led the Guardians and Royals by 2.5 games. Each of those three teams were at least seven games over .500. But after an abysmal last week or so, it would take a major collapse for the Tigers to not win the division, as CBS Sports gives them a 94% chance to wear the AL Central crown. All hope isn't lost though, as the Twins still have a 39.2% chance to make the playoffs with the Guardians next at 18.1%.

After a day off to rest and reset, the entire division is back in action Tuesday. Here's the full schedule of games.

• Detroit Tigers vs. Pittsburgh Pirates; 5:40 p.m. CT
• Minnesota Twins at Cincinnati Reds; 6:10 p.m. CT
• Chicago White Sox vs. St. Louis Cardinals; 6:40 p.m. CT
• Kansas City Royals at Texas Rangers; 7:05 p.m. CT
• Cleveland Guardians at San Francisco Giants 8:45 p.m. CT